Former Ky. Personnel Secretary Gets 70 Months

(CN) — A former Kentucky official was sentenced to nearly six years in prison after he admitted he took over $200,000 in kickbacks from a private consultant. Timothy M. Longmeyer, former Secretary of the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet, was sentenced Thursday to 70 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell. He was also ordered to pay $203,500 in restitution. Longmeyer, 48, pleaded guilty in April, admitting that he solicited and accepted $212,500 in exchange for helping a consultant get multimillion-dollar contracts. He took $197,500 in cash and thousands more in contributions to various political campaigns, prosecutors said. During his tenure as Secretary of the Personnel Cabinet, Longmeyer helmed the Kentucky Employees’ Health Plan, and persuaded insurers to hire the consultant to run focus groups and surveys, according to prosecutors. The unnamed consultant also reportedly landed contracts with Humana Inc. and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. Longmeyer must serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence. “No cases have a higher priority in our office than those involving public corruption, and we are committed to protecting the public from those who seek to unlawfully enrich themselves at the taxpayers’ expense,” Eastern Kentucky U.S. Attorney Kerry Harvey said in a statement.